650 lb. pet therapy pig in Detroit relocated to Newport shelter

NEWPORT, Mich. (WJBK) - A 650 lb. pig that was living in the backyard of a Detroit home has been relocated to a facility in Newport. 

The unusual pet, Penny, was causing a rift among neighbors. When the pig grew too big for the house, the Goines family built a pit out back for her. That's when neighbors began to complain. 

Ariana Delaluz lives next door and says the pen was a filthy eyesore, and that the pig continuously dug holes under their fence, scaring her young son. 

"I am upset with the city, upset with neighbors," Delaluz told FOX 2 last month. "I am at ends, I don't know what else to do."

Farm animals aren't allowed in the City of Detroit, but owner Larry Goines II says they are if they're therapy animals. He told us they were in the middle of the paperwork to make Penny a therapy animal for his wife, who was diagnosed with PTSD, but it was too late.  

Detroit Animal Control came out, and a city spokesperson told FOX 2 there is no such designation for a pig. And even if the state approved it as a comfort pig - the Goines family would only be allowed to take it to places where therapy animals are allowed - and it would be pretty tough to cart around a 650 lb. pig.

On Wednesday, July 4, officials from Devoted Barn in Newport came and got the pig. 

Melissa from Devoted Barn says Penny has settled in and is enjoying an appropriate enclosure with lots of room, water and, of course, mud. She also has lots of other hog friends, including two others rescued from a Detroit basement three years ago. 

Melissa says the first thing Penny did was roll out of the trailer in the mud, and then laid there smiling.